Fànwǎngjīng púsàjiè lüèshū 梵網經菩薩戒略疏
Concise Commentary on the Bodhisattva Precepts of the Brahmajāla Sūtra by 弘贊 (Hóngzàn, 述)
About the work
An eight-fascicle late-Míng commentary on the Fànwǎng bodhisattva-precepts by the Vinaya specialist Hóngzàn 弘贊 (弘贊, 1611–1685). 略疏 lüèshū “concise commentary” — though the eight fascicles indicate that the work is concise only by comparison with the encyclopedic Tang commentaries.
Prefaces
Author’s colophon: 明弘贊述.
Abstract
Hóngzàn’s commentary is one of the principal late-Míng / early-Qīng commentaries on the Fànwǎng jīng, alongside 智旭 Zhìxù’s Fànwǎngjīng hézhù (KR6k0097) and 寂光 Jìguāng’s Fànwǎngjīng zhíjiě (KR6k0100). Hóngzàn approached the Fànwǎng from a Vinaya-specialist perspective, emphasising practical procedural-disciplinary application over against the doctrinal-philosophical readings of Zhūhóng and Zhìxù. The text is preserved in the Jiāxīng 嘉興 edition of the canon — a valuable Míng-Qīng compilation independent of the standard Buddhist Tripiṭaka.
Translations and research
- Yū, Chün-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in China. New York, 1981.
- Wáng Jiànguāng 王建光. Zhōngguó lǜ-zōng tōng-shǐ. Nanjing, 2008.